If I offered you vanilla or chocolate ice cream, which would you choose? Would you prefer one over the other? And if you chose vanilla and I would give you chocolate instead, would you be upset? These seem trivial questions, and you may wonder what...
I've been dealing with a serious health challenge in my family for the last couple of months, which has me traveling back and forth across the Atlantic. This is why I haven't written in a while, as other things seem more important at the moment....
The teachings of the Buddha about the Second Arrow are a great way to understand why holding on to a grudge causes so much more suffering than the actual event that caused the grief. Two Buddhist monks are silently walking along a path. When they reach...
You should eat breakfast; it’s the most important meal of the day. However, you should also not eat breakfast because intermittent fasting is really good for you. You shouldn’t eat carbohydrates, and lots of fat. And also: you shouldn’t eat fat because it’s not good for your...
After the rush of the holidays and with the knowingness it will still be a while till summer, you may be inclined to hunker down – hibernate if you could – or at least slow down your pace and spend more time attending to your...
Last week I was on a 6-day Silent Meditation retreat with my teachers Sarah and Ty Powers. I love being silent for an extended period of time. It clears my mind and reconnects me with myself. During one of my meditations my 7-year old nephew...
Have you ever wondered, while standing in front of the cool section at the grocery store, why organic fermented sauerkraut is so expensive? Try making it yourself, and you will understand why. Since there is only so much raw red cabbage that you can eat,...
Last week I was on a 5-day Silent Meditation Retreat. Besides no talking, there was no reading, no writing, no music, just nothing to distract me from the present moment, other than my own thoughts. I loved it, and hated it. I love being silent,...
In my previous blog I described that experiencing a - real or perceived - threat triggers the fight-or-flight response in our body. This reaction makes our brain even more hyper alert to threat. It works in reverse too: negative thoughts trigger stress responses in the...
I am not a fan of making resolutions. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, I don’t write big This Is Where I Should Be in Five Years plans, and I won’t even have a fixed plan for my day if I don’t have any appointments...